How a work of art is presented to a viewer can have a significant effect on whether the aesthetic merits of the work are fully appreciated. For example, if a painting is tilted, viewers may be so distracted by the tilt of the painting that they cannot fully appreciate the painting's aesthetic qualities.
The need to present art at the correct rotational orientation applies equally to photographs. Like paintings, photographs may be badly oriented relative to the surroundings in which they are displayed. However, the visual content of a photograph may also be badly oriented relative to the photograph's own peripheral shape. Specifically, most photographs are captured as rectangular images. If the photographer is not holding the camera perfectly level relative to the ground at the time a photograph is taken, the image in the photograph may appear tilted relative to the rectangular peripheral shape of the photograph. In such cases, if the photograph is displayed in a manner that correctly orients the visual content of the photograph with the viewer, then the peripheral shape of the photograph will appear tilted. Conversely, if the photograph is displayed in a manner that correctly orients the peripheral shape of the photograph with the viewer, then the visual content of the photograph will appear tilted.
One benefit of digital images is that they may be manipulated to compensate for undesirable characteristics in the originally captured image. For example, many software tools are available to brighten a digital photo when the originally captured version of the photo is undesirably dark. Software tools may also be used to adjust the rotational orientation of digital photos. Unfortunately, just as it is often difficult to determine the perfect rotational orientation of a physical painting without a level, it can be difficult to determine the perfect rotational orientation of a digital image. Further, even when adjustments are made to achieve the perfect rotational orientation of the visual content of a digital photo, there remains the problem of what to do about the incorrect rotational orientation of the peripheral shape of the digital photo that results from such adjustments.
The approaches described in this section are approaches that could be pursued, but not necessarily approaches that have been previously conceived or pursued. Therefore, unless otherwise indicated, it should not be assumed that any of the approaches described in this section qualify as prior art merely by virtue of their inclusion in this section.